Fracking health study stalled

ALBANY — The regulations to allow fracking in New York will likely be delayed yet again.

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By STEVE ISRAEL

recordonline.com

By STEVE ISRAEL

Posted Feb. 13, 2013 at 2:00 AM

By STEVE ISRAEL

Posted Feb. 13, 2013 at 2:00 AM

» Social News

ALBANY — The regulations to allow fracking in New York will likely be delayed yet again.

In a letter Tuesday to the state Department of Environmental Conservation, the state's chief health official, Nirav Shah, writes that a Department of Health study on the impacts of hydraulic fracturing, or fracking "will require additional time to complete based on the complexity of the issues. ... I anticipate delivering the completed Public Health Review to you within a few weeks, along with my recommendations."

That health review is needed before the state's massive environmental review of fracking can be completed and released. The environmental review or SGEIS — which had to be published by Wednesday, according to state regulations — would be the basis for the regulations, which had a deadline of Feb. 27 to be released, or else there would be further public comment allowed. More comment would mean more delay in the process that has now lasted some 4﻿1/2 years.

DEC Commissioner Joe Martens acknowledged that more time would now be needed for the environmental review and final regulations.

"I will not issue a final SGEIS until that review is complete and I have received Dr. Shah's recommendations," Martens said in a statement.

He added: "The previously proposed high-volume hydraulic fracturing regulations cannot be finalized until the SGEIS is complete."

Still, Martens said there is a chance that permits for fracking could be issued without the regulations — if the health review finds that the horizontal natural gas extraction process using sand, water and chemicals is safe.

"However, this does not mean that the issuance of permits for high-volume hydraulic fracturing would be delayed," he said in that statement. "If the DOH Public Health Review finds that the SGEIS has adequately addressed health concerns, and I adopt the SGEIS on that basis, DEC can accept and process high-volume hydraulic fracturing permit applications 10 days after issuance of the SGEIS. The regulations simply codify the program requirements. If, on the other hand, the DOH review finds that there is a public health concern that has not been assessed in the SGEIS or properly mitigated, we would not proceed, as I have stated in the past."

Still, at least one fracking opponent welcomed the fact that more study — and further delay — is needed for the health review. He called the news of the health study delay "a victory."

"It makes perfect sense to me," said Wes Gillingham of Sullivan County-based Catskill Mountainkeeper, which is opposed to fracking. "There needs to be more time to analyze all of this."

On Friday, however, the leader of a state landowners' group looking to lease their land for fracking said his group "is laying the groundwork for a lawsuit if there is further delay."